"She's heavily sedated. I have her hooked to an IV drip to keep her under. I also figured that since she would have to have the IV attached that if stopped, we would need to have a reason to be wheeling her out of the hospital, so I forged transfer papers to the burn unit at Children's Hospital in San Antonio. Not really plausible but it may buy us some time if caught."

Logan was impressed with the doctors' forethought. "Thank you."

"Let's just get this done," she growled. Logan wondered if the good doctor's conscience was nagging her. He thought about reminding her about what Fane had done to her brother, but decided it would be better to just keep his mouth shut, get Jacque, and go. Dr. Steele had wheeled a gurney into the small room, right up against the bed that Jacque was lying in. Logan thought she looked pale, even with her still-pink healing skin.

"I need you to grab that end of the sheet and on my count, pull. It will slide her smoothly across," Dr. Steele was telling him as he stared at the woman he had chosen as his mate.

Logan grabbed the end as instructed and pulled smoothly on the doctor's count of three. He covered her with a blanket up to her neck and Dr. Steele placed and oxygen mask over her face. She said it was just to help make it harder to identify Jacque. They began to wheel the gurney out and it struck Logan that there was no one else around.

"Where are the nurses?"

"There are only two ICU nurses at night and I sent one to get me some more antibiotics from the pharmacy, and the other to my office to get my phone."

"But you have your phone," Logan said before thinking.

"Yes, but she doesn't know that now does she? Now hurry before they get back," she told him as she pulled the door to the room Jacque had been in closed. They pushed the gurney through doors opposite the ones that Logan had come in. It brought them straight to an elevator that had the doors held open by a large steel trash can. Dr. Steele was ahead of the game, Logan liked that. As they rode down, the sound of elevator music filtered through the speakers and although the music was meant to be calming, it was grating on Logan's nerves, and he really just wanted to rip the speakers out. Calm down, he told himself, it's almost over.

The elevator doors opened and they pushed the gurney into a hall with harsh fluorescent lights that shined against white walls and white linoleum floors. Logan could hear sounds emanating from the right end of the hall. The emergency room, he thought. They turned left and quickly wheeled the gurney away from the noise. The hall seemed to go on forever, although Logan knew that it really wasn't that long. At that moment, pushing the gurney with Jacque on it even five feet would be too long. Just when he thought he might have to take off in a sprint, they were finally in front of the doors that would lead to the car he had waiting for them. Dr. Steele pushed a button on the wall and the doors opened automatically.

Logan had parked the SUV directly to the left of the doors, and as they wheeled Jacque over to the back passenger door Logan realized that with Jacque sick, things just got a whole lot more complicated, so he made a split second decision. When Dr. Steele walked to his end of the gurney so that she could get the IV bag to hang on the clothes hanger hook above the back seat window, Logan grabbed her by the neck. She froze as she felt Logan's claws pierce her skin, a warm trickle of blood slid down her throat.

She didn't know what the hell Logan was up to, but she did know that her role in this game had just changed, and not to her benefit.

"I cannot manage all these medicines for Jacque, so until you tell me what I need to do to make her better you are going with us," Logan growled low, his eyes beginning to glow.

Her wolf naturally wanted to submit but she just wanted to spit in his face. She looked down at Jacque. The girl really was sick and she held no ill will against her, she just happened to be caught in the crossfire. Once again to help justify her actions, and allay her guilty conscience, she would comply with Logan. "Okay, I will go with you. But as soon as I have shown you what you need to do to heal her I'm out, got it?"

Logan gave her neck one more squeeze for good measure. "We'll see, doc," he told her, his look promising retaliation if she did not keep her end of the deal.

They got Jacque loaded into the back seat. She hung the IV bag from the clothes hook above the window, then climbed into the passenger side taking a deep breath and letting it out slow. What have I gotten myself into, Cynthia thought to herself. She watched as Logan pushed the gurney back on the sidewalk, not bothering to take it back into the hospital. He walked to the driver side door and climbed into the vehicle. Without a word he started the SUV, put it in drive, and slipped off into the night while Jacque's mate waited in vain to hear of news of her well being. Cynthia couldn't have stopped the tear that slipped down her cheek if she had wanted to.

Chapter 24

Sally woke up groggily. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but then she remembered she was in the hospital because Jen and Jacque were both healing from the wreck. She put her hands to her head and moaned, her head felt like it was splitting open. As she stood up slowly, she realized that there was singing coming from the bathroom. She looked around and noticed Jen was not in her bed, and then she remembered that Jacque was really sick and in the ICU. She looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was 5:00a.m. Walking over to the bathroom door, she tried in vain to remember what had happened last night. She gave up and knocked on the door. When the singing continued and no one answered her, she turned the knob experimentally to see if it was locked. It was. She pressed her ear to the door and realized then that it was Jen singing. Pressing closer, she strained to hear her.